Take on the role of a Junior Bureaucrat (Colonial Grade), sent forth to seek fame, promotions, and natural resources to feed the ravenous maw of Imperial Industry & Commerce. History is yours to seize for fame and fortune, for Science, and for the Queen and the glory of the Clockwork Empires!

Sign in to add this item to your wishlist, follow it, or mark it as not interested

Early Access Game

Get instant access and start playing; get involved with this game as it develops.

Note: This Early Access game is not complete and may or may not change further. If you are not excited to play this game in its current state, then you
should wait to see if the game progresses further in development. Learn more

What the developers have to say:

Why Early Access?

“Early Access is the single most influential tool we can find to receive feedback to improve the game. We've had tremendous success with doing this on smaller scales in the past with Dungeons of Dredmor, but with a larger game, especially a sandbox simulation game, more testing is dramatically more valuable. Early Access will make Clockwork Empires the best game we can possibly make it.

The benefits of Early Access for the players are, of course, early access to the game, and the ability to not only watch the game take shape but to help us shape it with suggestions on how we can improve systems, and be able to log in every month and see notable content additions and systems improvements inspired by your feedback.”

Approximately how long will this game be in Early Access?

“We have a list of features to complete which we've discussed in detail on our Clockwork Empires: Development Progress site. We'll release the game when these features are done. Current estimate for their completion is about 9 months, but the most important thing for us is that the features we've discussed and wanted to include in the project make it in.

How is the full version planned to differ from the Early Access version?

In terms of how the full version will differ from the current version:

The full version of Clockwork Empires will have more monsters, more character interactions, more vehicles, more events, a much improved user interface (based on feedback), more biome diversity, multiplayer, and ... of course, we will be improving game performance and resolving any crash bugs that are found as we go. (If anyone sees any crashing, please report it to Gaslamp Games for immediate Purging).”

What is the current state of the Early Access version?

“Upon loading the game, the player is set to the task of building a thriving colony out of a pile of supplies and handful of characters. Making sure they don't starve and aren't killed by monsters are the most important considerations. Your military will shoot monsters if given access to weaponry, and your non-military characters will get to work building houses and workshops, and tilling farms as the player gives them orders to do so.

Will the game be priced differently during and after Early Access?

“No, we are not planning on changing the price. Price changes tend to be confusing for everyone.

Increasing the price upon release is contrary to the long-standing tradition of games getting cheaper as they get older. Decreasing the price upon release effectively makes people pay a premium to participate in early access. While we feel that participating should be valuable to you, we don't want to set that price as something other than what everyone would have to pay anyway.”

How are you planning on involving the Community in your development process?

“The scale of community involvement is pretty heavily dependent on the size of the community.

To start, we spend time on our forums as well as right here on the Steam forums trying to answer questions directly, letting people know when we've logged bugs they find or responding to content or design suggestions. We've been doing this with our internal test group for the last few months, and with the Earliest Access players for the last month, which has benefited us a ton. At a some point, though, the community can get too big to guarantee that level of communication, at which point we might use other tools to answer questions. Reddit for direct conversations, strawpolls to gauge interest in different feature implementations, stuff like that which can help us hear everyone as effectively as possible. We're open to experimenting with this process to find out what works best, and we'll definitely listen to suggestions from players about how to better communicate with the community.

We have had a running development blog for Clockwork Empires since before we officially announced the project, and we will be keeping that up to date with our progress and changelogs for new versions. We will also keep our Clockwork Empires Development Progress report up to date with our monthly releases. People who want more information can visit the Clockwork Empires Portal to see the latest updates on our twitter account for the game, @ClockwrkEmpires).”

Reviews

About This Game

Take on the role of a Junior Bureaucrat (Colonial Grade), sent forth to seek fame, promotions, and natural resources to feed the ravenous maw of Imperial Industry & Commerce. Build a prosperous colony, fill it with magnificent factories worked by oppressed labourers, and harness the awesome power of steam through fearsome machines invented by determined men and women of Science! History is yours to seize for fame and fortune, for Science, and for the Queen and the glory of the Clockwork Empires!

Features

Colonists are simulated with individual personalities, memories, and will be happy or miserable depending on your management.

Additional Notes: INTEL HD3000 AND HD4000 GRAPHICS CARDS ARE NOT SUPPORTED. The Ministry for Video Game Drivers would like to remind you: true Patriots of the Empire always install their latest Graphics Card Drivers before Enjoying A Bracing Video Game, lest the Blackness Consume Us All.

A game that puts you in charge of establishing a colony for a steampunk British Empire in a world full of Lovecraftian horrors? Despite my first thought of "Mwahahaha! Thank you, Great Cthulhu! Take my money!," I decided to show a little restraint and kept an eye on Clockwork Empires for a while before making another Early Access impulse buy. At $30.00 I found it rather pricey for an Early Access game as other reviews have commented, but I finally decided to give it a try. Clockwork Empires is still very much a work in progress, it's features a mix of the impressively well done (production chains function far more smoothly than in games from bigger developers, yes, Tropico franchise, I'm looking at you) and desperatly in need of attention (the Load function appears to be a placeholder and it's just plain ugly). One thing I found particularly interesting is the colonists personality traits and observing how they influence behavior. Those with the "Morbid" trait, for example, seem more likely to eat "Long Pork" (it's people, yes, your colonitsts can engage in cannibalism) even if there is other food available. Based on the regular update history and developer responsiveness in the forums, I believe that this game will get finished - although it may take some time given the features that haven't been implemented yet - and when it does it will be a great game. It is most definatley playable in it's current state, which I'd estimate at about 40% if the developer ultimately implements all the features they've hinted at. A lot of the other 60% is going to be polish. If you're interested and can afford it, I'd go make the $30.00 investment in supporting developement. The game as it stands is already capable of providing hours of delightfully twisted fun, but then again I'm the kind of person who laughts while I watch the local wildlife maul my colonists.

I've been watching/playing this game for awhile now. For most of that time a medley of things kept me from really getting into it. Whether it be giant beetles attacking my settler with the fish peple on map start or bandits spawning with my settlers, settelers stopping to admire the machines while they slowly starved to death, things seemed to be set against me to actally enjoy this. That actually all changed with the latest patch. Bandits now take a few days to start causing terror, workers will actually do thier jobs and not stop, plus it doesn't lag so terribly anymore until the higher settler counts. Like 50-60. All in all it's a great time now until the game crashes on you, but there's still a lot of bugs and issues that still need to be fixed.

I would still say that you should watch some lets plays and read more reviews before buying it so early. I persoanlly don't regret it.

With this late-March 2015 release (37A) I'm feeling like the game is really starting to come together.

The tutorials look good, the video performance is better (although the action in the game can be glacial sometimes, and there's no overall speed control.) I'd also like to be able to zoom out (the minimap isn't implemented yet either.)

It is shaping up to be a really great builder, the Early Access is working out, and it is a great presentation overall (love the EA updates with the themes.)

In alpha it's a whole pile of heart break. After 30 some odd days and 35+ Settlers the game crashed. No big alpha is alpha, and unlike most games the Devs do actually pay attention to comments and reviews. I just DIED inside after losing such a great colony. If you don't mind some early bugs and balance issues (basically alpha in a nutshell) then give it a go. Just don't expect everything to be perfect just yet.

On the subject of bugs, since the Devs read this and respond. I may as well throw down some of the things I've come across after a good day of playing.

Bandits EVERYWHERE!I love the bandits, the whole Idea is a great addition, especially those bandit camps full of goodies. But too much! During one very short playthrough I had already fended off some fish folk twice, and bandits 3 times. After I watched the walking tank take out the last of my armed forces I admitted defeat. The the same basic thing happened a few more times. I'll be honest, I did rock some notepad plus in the events folder and tone down the number of bandits. It seemed to help make it a bit more balanced. If I was lazy and let the armed forces do their own thing I would still take casualties, but with some decent planning, a few clutch land mines, and fortifications. I managed to hold the line.

KILL THE RICH MAN!Sadly after discovering that the upper class was doing nothing to contribute, and THEN discovering that they were also distracting my workers. I was forced to execute my entire upper class population. I'm sure their are big plans for them but damn they are mighty useless. During a situation where everyone needs to pull their own weight, it was just not appropriate to have them around. I mean come on! This is a frontier colony! What are we going to do with Capitalists and Poets!?

No Chair for you!I had to basically make the choice of not building chairs or tables. They basically broke my production chains. The time it would take for every citizen to walk to the food stuffs, and then all the way to whatever random table they decided was good. Compared to the time it would take to huff it to the stock pile and scarf it down right their simply made it worth it to save my wood for other tasks.

Hunting Bug Maybe?For whatever reason my citzens would not hunt. Maybe a bug, maybe just that game. But whenever I set them to hunt they would drop their current task and remain idle. If I removed hunting from their tasks, they started working again.

I pick things up and put them down!Every once and a while a work crew will decide that the building they are working on requires a dance. They begin to pick up logs, then move them to another stockpile spot and drop them. Then begin the process over again. I've also observed them doing it with planks while assembling modules. Usually the same plank or log.

Need an ability to cancel/delete/remove anything. The only real game breaking aspects of the game is the inability to say delete the job to build a refinery that seems to bug, or remove a module that's in the wrong spot. Or tear down a building all together. Remove a stockpile. farm, etc.

Remember the game is still in alpha, so if you pick it up. Take some notes and send them over to the devs. The game can only get better that way.

The game is unpolished, weird, and highly amusing. In other words, exactly what you'd expect from Gaslamp Games, the company that brought you the wonderful Dungeons of Dredmor, which was also unpolished and weird in its early days, and highly amusing even today. The dev team has been hard at work and it shows. Each update is a significant improvement to an already enjoyable experience. This one is well worth your time and money.

I like the idea of this game; a group of colonists you can micromanage into building a new settlement in a lavish resource filled world, but watch out for the bandits and fishpeople.

This game has a lot of great potential, as far as strategy sandbox games go. But just when you think you're getting into it, it crashes, and it happens a lot. There is still a long way to go before it reaches the final product stage but it may have a lot of potential.

Game is in Alpha but playable for me. I do the experimental build. I had a few issues with bugs but the Devs are quick to respond and that's what Alpha is all about. Also the updates seem to pack a lot of new stuff in which is great I can see progress is being made. I do not reget buying in Alpha, it is a ton of fun and the bugs don't take much away from it. I do wish when your colony got big there was less lag when you get in colonists the game does slow down quite a bit but still playable. I recommend it to anyone who enjoys a sim/city builder with a different story line.

I bought this game not expecting much as it's in early alpha but already I've seen enough to know I made the right choice of buying it. At the moment there are some quite rough bugs in that are getting worked out but when they are I'm sure it'll be one of the better games in the genre! Kudos, Gaslamp!

This game has problems. I hate to start with that, but I must, because as of now (32B) it is buggy, sometimes broken and incomplete. That said, this is EARLY ACCESS, so it should not be complete right now. If they were to sell it as a full game in it's current state, it would suck, but that is not what it is. As early access, it is great. It has some fantastic ideas, great art style, and tons more on the way. The devs are also fantastic, everything they do, they post, and are quite open with how the development process is going. If you are curious you can go check it out at gaslamp games.com. They are supportive of the fans and, more importantly for early access, take ideas into acount and try to make the game better. As of now, it is fun, but broken, once it is fixed and complete, this could be a great game. I am talking three number hour counts. Once you figure out the game ( not much of a tutorial right now) it is hard, but not unfair. It does not bash you over the head with random sudden problems and go "deal with it" like other colony sims. ( I am looking at you, tropico tornado). If there is a problem, it is either a known one that you can prepare for to stop it, or, you just did not keep an eye on the cultists. Building is also great, because you can build you building how you like, and decorate them how you like, so you don't have the good old thirty identical houses thing. It's great fun, and looks to be better once it is done. Also don't let my low hours fool you, I got earliest access, so played that, and also steam is doing weird things as far as keeping track of hours goes. Also when you people get hungry, they don't just die, they resort to cannabalism. how many other games do that? and fishpeople, giant beetles, cultists, eldritch horrors, poets, drugs, alcaholism.......

Quite like towns.... minus the developer cheating you out of your hard earned cash and then pretty much telling you to ♥♥♥♥ off.... These guys are currently doing it right and in the two updates since I have started playing they have been more than helpful and acceptive of the players feedback. This game is more than just a Towns "Clone" animated combat and a much more diverse set of things that can go wrong. The game revolves around you expanding for the Queen. Dropped off from the airship into a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ you must begin making your mark on the world. Building is quite gratifying and when your troops hold off a raid of enemies it does give a smile. Then if your people are hungry they can have a few Manwiches and get back to work.

If you are on the fence continue waiting. If you wish to support Gaslamp then HOP RIGHT IN! Help shape this game to be the dark humorous experience that it will be.

I've been on and off this game since the time it launched on steam. First impressions were so-so until I saw the level of support they, https://www.gaslampgames.com, were actively giving, which is true to this day. The Lovecraftian aspects of this game are what originally drew me in but the humor, Steampunk, survival and quirkiness I found appreciative of as well. With each colonist having their own memories that affect their behavior which consequently affects their interaction with other colonists, sets the stage for an interesting unique gaming experience.

Remember that the game is still Early Access so it is NOT FINISHED. You may experience problems here and there, but the level of support and the playability of the game at this point along with the Lovecraft deserves this thumbs up.

This early access game is fun and interesting, but there are definitely a few bugs that need to be ironed out before release. Apart from no audio during my first game (restarting fixed this), the actual gameplay seems to work pretty smooth - no gamestopping bugs. The tutorial did an ok job at explaining the basics, but it still needs more explanations on how the game works.

However the interface still needs a bit of work, where some buttons simply have no use, and some orders are kind of repetitive. Still, the interface works, and the game is playable already in this state. The biggest problem I found is how little you can see about whats going on in the colony. Colonists are ordered in work teams, but aside from counting them, there's no easy way to find out how many they are. And there's little visual distinction between them apart from their fancy names. This made it hard to figure out who was doing what, and micro-managing becomes extremely tedious.

The game is very flavourful, and there's lots to do. It's a hard game that plays quite differently each time. I can't really recommend getting this early access version, but I definitely think the finished game will be worth every penny!

This is a great game but is still in alpha so it will be buggy . The game has that sort of dark humor and can be very funny at times, also it takes place in a steampunk world . The game is getting better by every update and if you like the survival/ city building you will love this game.

An idea that holds the essence of Victorian Steampunk and comes with a brilliant presentation..Also the fact that each colonist has it's own personality that evolves from a combination of their traits and their memories make this a unique project..Having said that take note that it's an early access game(alpha) with a buggy interface at the moment and a gameplay that it's not polished yet..I have never experienced a crash however or a problem with saving/loading games as i read from others..The most annoying bugs i found is that at some point all tabs were showing a different number of colonists making the situation in hand unmanagable & with a workshop i designed that is now full operational but the exterior was never built.I really hope that the developers can deliver all this potential the game is showing. Cause if they do this is going to be a one-of-a-kind game.

Inspired by reading a certain article about Early Access Games, I thought about Clockwork Empire and my oppinion of it.

In general, as the thumb up indicates, I recommend and support this game. It is though very early in developement. The general concept is similar to other tactical, economical simulations game. Their gratest imrpove though is the idea of not having individuals appointed to all kinds of jobs by the engine, but to have a whole group do the tasks as one. This brings in the dynamic and speed often missing within the games, also it organizes the order of jobs and economoics.The idea and setting of the game is also one I highly appreciate, for it promises to become a very well done steam-punk game, whereof there is way too little on the market in my oppinion. At least in this sort of genre, mind you. Already there are a lot of interesting mechanics in the order of production and economoy to be seen in the early access, and I look forward to see what else they might include.

Then there is the studio and their individual personallity, mirrored in the story and character of the game. Their humor is awesome and I loved it all the time when playing Dungeons of Dreadmore. It is because of this former game that I went into early access with a lot of trust and faith in this studio! They might have chosen a more tricky set up of a game here, but their idea - or the one I see from the game - is that of a semi mysterius-industrial culture simulation game, with a lot of humor. Thanks to that I see an interesting game evolve here, that will have lots of things to offer for people who enjoyed to play Dwarf Fortress, Gnomoria, Facturio and the like. At least, in my point of view.

Like other Early-Access Projects they do well on including content step by step and simultanously balancing and fixing or repairing priviosly included stuff and mechanics. Also the game-concept itself can be viewed as object-oriented. That is important on a perspective of game developeing: Since it is OO, they >can< take concepts and content of the game and put it into a later phase of the developing. Where other games might fail because the developers have too much to synch at the same time and write together, here there is the option to evolve step by step, which is crucially important.

Again, this is just my oppinion, based on what I see as a player, without having actually peaked into the code yet. For anyone interested, all you as a buyer need to have is pacience. So far I had a good nose with my picks, and this is one that will grow slowly but steadyly. Though personally I already highly enjoy playing the game (despite minor crashes and bugs I can ignore), for those who have higher standards the game should have grown enough latest by the end of the year. So far they keep going with their monthly updates, which is a huge plus, so they might be even quicker.

To the devs: Keep the work up! You're on a good way and it's definately worth all the trouble! Best luck and finances!

Shows alot of promise to be a really fun game. At the moment, I recommend only buying the game if you want to check out the style of it and the gameplay. I do not recommend buying it for playing it, wait for more updates or better yet, out of EA. At the moment it is still far too buggy (eg animals trapped in buildings, colonists geting stuck on trees) and sometimes unresponsive (eg exploring, wont hunt animals).

This game has immense potential! It is unique in foundation but bears resemblance to The Settlers and Tropico series (so I find). I am keen to see where this game goes in the future. Here are my thoughts on where the game could improve:

* The option to name colonies and change the name of colonists.* A more chic UI that is more polished.* Easier access to modules (I find finding specific decorations etc. to be more congestive than other games).* Exterior decorations (roads, gardens, fountains, statues etc.)

They're just some initial ideas from my 78 minutes of gameplay. I don't regret the purchase, although I am very keen for some more development.